Wake up Rosetta: You have a date with a comet

By Dave Gilbert, CNN

Updated 1557 GMT (2357 HKT) January 17, 2014

Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

The Philae comet lander came out of hibernation on June 13 and "spoke" to mission managers at the European Space Agency for 85 seconds. The probe fell silent a few days after it failed to stick its landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November, 2014. The photo above was taken by the lander's mothership, the Rosetta orbiter after the lander started its descent to the comet.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Philae wakes up! Mission managers posted this cartoon of the lander yawning after coming out of hibernation on June 13. They also sent a series of tweets between the lander and its mothership, Rosetta.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a Jupiter-family comet. Its 6.5 year journey around the Sun takes it from just beyond the orbit of Jupiter at its most distant, to between the orbits of Earth and Mars at its closest. The comet hails from the Kuiper Belt, but gravitational perturbations knocked it towards the Sun where interactions with Jupiter's gravity set it on its present-day orbit.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by Rosetta on June 5, 2015 while the spacecraft was about 129 miles (208 kilometers) from the comet's center.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Rosetta's navigation camera took this image of the comet on June 1, 2015.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

The Rosetta Mission, now into its 11th year, is tracking Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on its orbit around the sun. This image was taken on May 3, 2015 at a distance of about 84 miles (135 km) from the comet's center.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken on April 15, 2015.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

The Rosetta spacecraft snapped this wide-angle view of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in September, 2014. Rosetta was about 107 million miles (172 million kilometers) from Earth and about 92 million miles (148 million kilometers) from the sun when the photo was released.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

A camera on Rosetta took this picture of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 22, 2014, from a distance of about 19 miles (31 kilometers). The nucleus is deliberately overexposed to reveal jets of material spewing from the comet. The 2.5-mile-wide (4-kilometer) comet has shown a big increase in the amount of water its releasing, according to NASA. The space agency says about 40 ounces (1.2 liters) of water was being sprayed into space every second at the end of August 2014.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Rosetta took this picture of a section of the comet's two lobes from a distance of about 5 miles (8 kilometers) on October 14, 2014.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

The Rosetta spacecraft's Philae lander is shown sitting on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after becoming the first space probe to land on a comet on November 12, 2014. The probe's harpoons failed to fire, and Philae bounced a few times. The lander was able to send back images and data for 57 hours before losing power.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Rosetta's lander, Philae, wasn't able to get a good grip on the comet after it touched down. This mosaic shows Philae's movements as it bounced across the comet.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Philae snapped these images after landing, and mission scientists used them to create a panoramic view of the landing site. A graphic shows where the probe would be sitting in the photograph.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

The image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by a camera on the Philae lander during its descent to the comet on November 12, 2014. The lander was about 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) from the surface at the time. Philae touched down on the comet about seven hours later.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Rosetta's OSIRIS camera captured this parting shot of the Philae lander after separation.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Rosetta's lander Philae took this parting shot of its mother ship shortly after separation on November 12, 2014, as Philae headed for a landing on Comet 67P. While Philae is the first probe to land on a comet, Rosetta is the first to rendezvous with a comet and follow it around the sun.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

This mosaic is made of four individual images taken about 20 miles (31.8 kilometers ) from the center of the comet on November 4, 2014.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Rosetta took this image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on September 15, 2014. The box on the right shows where the lander was expected to touch down.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

The spacecraft sent this image as it approached the comet on August 6, 2014. From a distance of nearly 81 miles (130 kilometers), it reveals detail of the smooth region on the comet's "body" section.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

This image, captured August 7, 2014, shows the diversity of surface structures on the comet's nucleus.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

The comet's "head" can be seen in the left of the frame as it casts a shadow over the "body" in this image released August 6, 2014.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

This image of the comet was taken on August 1, 2014, as Rosetta closed in its target.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Rosetta's mission started on March 2, 2004, when it was launched on a European Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Rosetta is named after the Rosetta Stone, the black basalt that provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. Scientists think the mission will give them new clues about the origins of the solar system and life on Earth. The mission is spearheaded by the European Space Agency with key support from NASA.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

This photo shows Rosetta being tested before it was wrapped in insulating blankets and loaded on a rocket for launch.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Rosetta has massive solar wings to power the spacecraft. They were unfurled and checked out at the European Space Agency's test facilities before being packed up for liftoff.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

After its closest approach to Earth in November 2007, Rosetta captured this image of the planet.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Rosetta snapped this image of Earth in November 2009. The spacecraft was 393,328 miles from Earth.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Rosetta passed asteroid Steins in September 2008, giving scientists amazing close-ups of the asteroid's huge crater. The asteroid is about 3 miles in diameter.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Rosetta took this image of Mars as it looped through the solar system.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

This image was taken by an instrument on Rosetta's Philae lander just minutes before the spacecraft made its closest approach to Mars. Part of Rosetta and its solar arrays are visible.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

On July 10, 2010, Rosetta flew about 1,864 miles from asteroid Lutetia, which is 10 times larger than asteroid Steins.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

Look closely at the top of this picture. See that dot? That's Saturn. Rosetta snapped the picture of asteroid Lutetia and captured Saturn in the background.

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Rosetta: The comet chaser34 photos

After taking pictures of Earth, Mars and asteroids, Rosetta was put into hibernation in May 2011 after it reached the outer part of the solar system. Mission managers woke it January 20, 2014.

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Story highlights

Rosetta will be the first spacecraft to orbit a comet and to place a lander on the surface

ESA says the mission objective is to help understand the evolution of the solar system

After mapping the comet a lander will be deployed to the surface

Some believe Earth may have received its water from comets

Scientists are inviting you to take part in "waking up" a comet-chasing probe that has been in hibernation in space for nearly three years.

The spacecraft is due to reactivate itself from an internal alarm clock on Monday but to celebrate the event the European Space Agency (ESA) is asking people to film themselves shouting "Wake up, Rosetta!" and then share their video clips on a dedicated Facebook page.

Visitors to the page can vote for their favorites and the top 10 will be transmitted towards Rosetta and out into the universe beyond.

Behind the fun lies a ground-breaking mission, which, if successful, will notch up a series of notable firsts.

Rosetta will be the first spacecraft to orbit a comet and to place a lander on the surface as it approaches and then swings around the sun.

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ESA says the mission's objective is to help understand the origin and evolution of the solar system and investigate the role that comets may have played in seeding Earth with water.

Named after the Rosetta stone --- a block carved with ancient scripts that led to Egyptian hieroglyphs being deciphered -- the €1 billion ($1.36 billion) space mission was launched in 2004.

Since then, ESA says it has been around the sun five times as controllers line it up to meet comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August this year. For the last 31 months it has been in hibernation for the coldest part of the journey that took it close to the orbit of Jupiter.

After mapping the comet's surface it will release the lander Philae in November and monitor changes as it gets closer to the sun.

ESA project scientist Matt Taylor said if the project is successful it will advance the knowledge about comets.

"It's the first time we've made a rendezvous with a comet -- that's never been done before -- and it's going to be the first time we've escorted a comet past its closest approach to the Sun," he told CNN.

"The cherry on the cake is that we also deploy the lander to probe the surface of the comet.

"With these firsts it will enable us to make a quantum leap in our understanding of comets -- where they come from, their consistencies.

"Previous missions have only flown past comets at high speed. Rosetta will get within 5km (3.1 miles) when we deploy the lander and will be in pace with the comet -- we will be really up close and personal with it."

Taylor explained that the spacecraft was designed to be put in hibernation because even with massive solar panels the size of a basketball court, Rosetta would not have enough power to complete its mission without this energy-saving strategy.

The lander is equipped with harpoons to attach itself to the comet, which is about 4km (2.5 miles) long, and then drill about 20cm (8 inches) into the surface to analyze the chemical components.

Often described as "dirty snowballs," comets are known to contain a lot of ice but scientists want to learn more about their exact composition.

Barry Kellett, an astronomer and research scientist at the UK's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, explained that when comets approach the sun, the ice melts and is turned into an ionized gas tail. The dust produces a separate, curving tail.

"Astronomers believe comets are made of pristine solar system material before the solar system was formed," he said. "They are the left over bits that never became a planet."

Some think that Earth may have received its water from comets, or even the chemicals that make up the building blocks of life on our planet.

"When Earth and Mars formed it would have been very hot so they would have formed dry," said Kellett. "And it was certainly very hot when Earth was hit by something that made the Moon. The only things we know that have a large amount of water on them are comets."

He said if Rosetta can establish the composition of this comet then "the question of where life came from might be better answered than before."

Rosetta's target comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is known as a short-period comet. It reappears every six years as its orbit brings it close to the Sun. Halley's comet has a period of about 76 years and is not due to return close enough to Earth to be visible until 2061. Others only return after thousands of years.

Recently, comet ISON was mostly destroyed in its close encounter with the sun in November last year but it did provide scientists with fresh data in the process.